Methodist Episcopal Church, Pullman, WA

February 8, 2016

The Simpson Methodist Church website shows the third and current building, a mid-century Modern design in the northwestern spirit of Pietro Belluschi. All they have to say about an earlier concerns an 1892 offer of $500 in the church would bear the name of 19th century bishop Rev. Matthew Simpson. If this postcard image shows the previous building, that date seems too early.

This exuberant Gothic Revival design has a few progressive characteristics (the shingled gables, for example) but its rhythms are a variation on the A-B-a-b type, with the addition of a fifth element: the dormered polygon in the foreground. That picturesque element might have housed a committee meeting room or women’s lounge adjacent to the Sunday School. A letter to the church office may yield some answers.